Retour en force

The first of two b-movie actioners Billy Blanks & Roddy Piper did in the 90's, 'Back In Action' is a solid ride. Good fight scenes, tons of bullet play, car chases, stuff blowing up in the standard story affair about cops, the mob, drugs & kidnapping people. Sure it's cheesy, don't reinvent the wheel, but heck if I didn't enjoy the trip.

Det. Rossi (Roddy Piper) is part of an undercover drug buy that goes bad while Billy (Billy Blanks) an ex-special forces cab driver tries to rescue his sister who's involved with one of the dealers. The hard nosed cop wants to bring down these men after they escape and ultimately their boss Kasajian (Canadian actor Nigel Bennett). While Billy has to continually come to his sisters aid (whenever she wants it or not) and the two men unofficially team up to settle all scores.

There's a fun dynamic going on here with Billy being the clean, sharp martial artist and Piper being a straight up bruiser who delivers a satisfying wrestling move or two during the flick. They don't see eye to eye at first and there's this reoccurring gag of Blanks kicking the gun outta Rowdy's hand whilst they brawl. Notch up a decent explosion or two alongside the fisticuffs, gunplay too.

'Back in Action' had a box cover back in the VHS dtv days that made me steer clear of it. Now in hindsight, I don't know why I did. It's obviously not of a high budget or housing a fresh story, but the action going down on the streets, alleys, piers of Toronto is fun. Really solid b-movie fun.

Rowdy Roddy Piper stars as tough guy police officer who joins forces with martial arts expert/vigilante Billy Blanks to bring down mobsters, who have kidnapped Piper's journalist squeeze(Bobbie Phillips) and Blanks's sister much action and karate chops fly. Billy Blanks and Roddy Piper's charisma (notice I didn't say acting) lifts what would be just another throwaway action flick which consists off the team up two tough guys with different styles, however as expected Back In Action features tons of admittedly spectacular action sequences which always offers a big bodycount. Admittedly all of this is silly, most of it predictable and derivative but Back In Action certainly lives up to its title and fans of the genre will enjoy the big bodycount which compensates for all the shortcomings Back In Action contains.

* *1/2 out of 4-(Pretty good)

For a movie that is largely sold (on posters, taglines, etc.) on the strength of the Billy Blanks - "Rowdy" Roddy Piper teaming, "Back In Action" doesn't really feature as much of their teamwork as you might expect - it's only in the last half hour that they join forces to go after the same targets. It's a bit of a shame, too, as these two do have some strong chemistry (in their first scene together, they fight each other, and it's amusing to see Blanks' kickboxing vs. Piper's brawling), and the rest of the "plot" is far too weak to hold your interest in other ways. The action in general is nothing really special in quality, but it's hard to complain about the quantity at least. The two women in the film, Bobbie Phillips and Kai Soremekun, are gorgeous, but it seems a bit of a waste to cast Phillips in a martial arts actioner and give her only about 10 seconds of fighting in total, considering how much a$$ she kicked in the same year's "TC 2000" (also with Blanks). Also be warned: this is an extremely violent film. I wasn't surprised to read on IMDb that it was originally rated NC-17 in the USA, and banned (!) in the UK. ** out of 4.

Just a minor note: some have said Back in Action was a direct-to-video release in the U.S. which isn't accurate. It was released for a brief run in the Southwest in 1993, playing at United Artists theaters including the University Quartet in Little Rock. Based on my memory, however, the lure of the 35mm prints did not attract huge audiences although I think it made a second week of release at one location as a split run. While Shaprio-Glickenhaus Entertainment did handle the Foreign Distribution Sales, it arranged with United International Pictures (UIP) for the domestic theatrical run in the U.S., probably just for the video store campaign as much as anything.

Back in Action (1994) was another direct-to-video-movie that starred two of the biggest players in the rising rental market. Billy Blanks plays a former decorated solider who's sister is mixed up with a local gangster. He knows that he's no good and she'll end up in trouble or worse. Roddy Piper co-stars as a hung over drunken cop who crosses paths with the enraged Billy. How will theses two be able to help each other out? Roddy wants to bust the mobster and Billy wants to put them six feet under. Will these two hot heads be able to work together and take a bite out of organized crime?

Roddy Piper and Billy Blanks found new careers in making low budget direct-to-video-action-films. This was a few years before Mr. Blanjs struck gold with the Tai-Bo gimmick and no longer needed to play in these cheesy films. Another underrated action duo. Blanks and Piper made a very interesting team.

Recommended.